Climate news this week--3/23

Although here at 1Sky we’ve known it for a long time, this week’s news commentary told us it’s official -- stopping climate change is good for the economy.

The debate over climate change is shifting away from saving the planet and toward rescuing the American worker.

In selling his controversial plan to cap carbon dioxide, for example — as he did in his address to Congress last month — President Obama has linked the need to save “our planet from the ravages of climate change” with the need to “truly transform our economy.”

In a subsequent speech to a group of CEOs, meanwhile, Obama again sought to sell his plan as a way to green the environment and promote economic growth. He told the business executives that he did not “accept a future where the jobs and industries of tomorrow take root beyond our borders.”“You and I both know that we need ultimately to make clean, renewable energy the profitable kind of energy,” Obama said. “We know that the best way to do that is through market-based caps on carbon pollution that drive the production of more renewable energy in America.”

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Given that dynamic, supporters say, the shift from save-the-planet to save-our-jobs is no accident, and Obama’s success in convincing people of his worldview will determine how successful his climate program will be.

The green economy got another boost this week when California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger launched a green jobs corps for the state’s youth:

Investing at least $10 million in federal economic stimulus funding from the U.S. Department of Labor and an additional $10 million from public-private partnerships, the initial phase of the California Green Corps will consist of a 20-month pilot program reaching at least 1,000 of California's at-risk young adults.

"The Green Corps will help underprivileged young people learn job skills while we create a well-trained workforce for clean technology and for the green economy," said Governor Schwarzenegger. "I've been pushing for this program for a long time, because it kind of combines my passion for the environment, for protecting the economy, creating jobs, career-tech education and helping underprivileged kids and of course, service."

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California is a green field of opportunities, the governor said. "In the next five or 10 or 20 years, California is going to need a lot of workers to install all of those solar panels, because you remember we passed a Million Solar Roof Initiative and there solar panels are being put on homes all over the state of California, faster than in any other place in America. We need also more sheet metal workers to produce wind turbines and more construction workers to build co-generation units."

"So this is the bottom line here, is we're trying to put all of this together," he said, "helping underprivileged young kids, then protecting the environment and protecting the economy."

Still, we’ve got a long way to go before we reach our goals for successful climate policy. Washington state, one of the nation’s environmental pioneers, faced a setback this week in passing a local cap-and-trade bill.

Gov. Chris Gregoire's attempt to push Washington to the forefront of climate-change regulation appears dead — mortally wounded in the state Legislature by fears it could hurt the economy and be vulnerable to rip-offs.

Both the state House and Senate have balked at adopting the so-called "cap-and-trade" system that would have forced industries to cut greenhouse-gas emissions to fall below a cap or buy extra permits in something resembling a stock market.

While a climate-change bill passed in the Senate and is headed for the House, it bears little resemblance to the comprehensive legislation Gregoire unveiled at a January news conference.

Gone is the mandatory program regulating pollution from big factories, electric utilities and fuel such as gasoline. In its place, state agencies are supposed to come back to the 2011 Legislature with a menu of approaches for regulating greenhouse gases.

"I think it's safe to say that we will not be implementing, this year, a cap-and-trade program," said Rep. Dave Upthegrove, D-Des Moines, the legislation's prime sponsor in the House. "I couldn't even get the trading part out of my own committee."

Global climate politics also faced a small setback this week when European Union leaders failed to commit to aid for developing nations.

EU leaders refused Friday to put a figure on aid for developing nations to cut greenhouse gases, saying they wanted to wait to see what the United States, China and others have to offer.

The European Commission had mooted 30 billion euros (41 billion dollars) but no figure was agreed at a two-day summit that ended Friday, with the EU not keen to show its hand before other major polluters had outlined theirs.

"We are talking about between 20 billion and 40 billion euros as the EU's participation," said Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk after the talks.

But there was no agreement on how to divide the bill up.

Tusk, whose country relies on heavily polluting coal for much of its energy needs, stressed that "we think that the simplistic 'polluter pays' mechanism is unacceptable," he said.

Pressure is mounting ahead of global climate change talks to be held in Copenhagen in December.

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"Developing nations are going to think twice about joining a global climate agreement without concrete financial commitments from rich countries."

Meanwhile, however, the Voluntary Carbon Standard Association launched their global multiple registry system, which will help streamline and monitor voluntary carbon offsets from companies and individuals around the world.

Offset companies and traders have been eagerly awaiting the new system, which will enable the transparent tracking and trading of offsets called Voluntary Carbon Units (VCUs).

"The system will give the market transparency as people will know their VCUs aren't being double sold. It will also give VCUs an added element of robustness and help standardization so they become a more tradable commodity," VCSA's chief executive David Antonioli told Reuters.

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"The launch of the VCS registry is a positive development in the ongoing evolution of the voluntary carbon market. Intra-registry account transfers will boost liquidity and encourage trades of smaller clips," said Grattan MacGiffin, head of voluntary carbon markets at MFGlobal in London.

The system should also encourage more interest from the U.S. in carbon offsets as new climate change legislation is debated there.

"This robust global registry system will boost buyer interest in the VCS, particularly in the U.S., and drive further consolidation of the global market," said Bill Townsend, chief executive of U.S. project developer Blue Source.

That’s a wrap for this week’s news. Please post other stories in the shared comments section. And don’t forget to sign up to meet with your member of Congress during April recess, if you haven’t already!